gathering around the city of benghazi in libya, they were worried if an american face was on that operation, if it was too much seen as america leading another war in the middle east, that they might not pass that resolution in the united nations security council. and so the idea was they needed to put some of the arab and other countries out in front and that the obama administration needed to lead from behind in passing that united nations resolution. so that was the context. i always thought, frankly, it was simply a matter of strategy, the phrase to me was always a little bit more machiavellian rather than announcing that they weren't going to take a leadership role in the world. of course, politically it's not something you would necessarily brand your foreign policy with. and republicans have really seized on it almost immediately and every republican has used it to slam obama ever since. but i hasten to add the specific context is very different than what most republicans describe. >> the article was an excellent article. i remember it well. you and i were on that same trip to north
